Business News 2009Business
News->'Entrereneur
for the World' Award Honours Four International Personalities

'Entrepreneur
for the World' Award Honours Four International
Personalities

'Lyon,
France,20 November 2009

Fazle
Hasan Abed, who is a promoter of microcredit finance
and initiated the Bangladesh Rural Advancement
Committee (BRAC), received the 'Entrepreneur for
the World' award in the category Social Entrepreneur
at the World Entrepreneurship Forum in Lyon, France,
on 19 November 2009. Fours awards are given to
international personalities in the entrepreneur,
social entrepreneur, academic expert, and political
categories - the awards highlight their entrepreneurial
success and their commitment to the society.

Bert Twaalfhoven received
the 'Entrepreneur for the World' in the category
Expert, which awards an academic or non-academic
leader whose research, studies, projects have
contributed to improve and disseminate knowledge
of entrepreneurship globally. Dr. Twaalfhoven
defines what is often described as a "serial
entrepreneur". Over the past 40 year years,
he has founded 51 high tech companies in 11 countries,
cooperating with 28 universities.

Dr. Twaalfhoven is active
in many international entrepreneurship university
networks: he founded the European Foundation for
Entrepreneurship Research (EFER); initiated the
EASDAQ (European Association of Securities Dealers
Automated Quotation). In 2001, he received the
Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award,
which is the highest honor conferred by the school.

Fazle Hasan Abed received
the 'Entrepreneur for the World' in the category
Social Entrepreneur. This award is granted to
a personality who has greatly improved the life
of the community. Fazle Hasan Abed initiated the
BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee),
the largest non-government development organisation
in the world. He is also one of the major promoters
of micro-credit as a way to get poor people out
of the misery and the dependency. Fazle
Hasan Abed has been honoured with many international
awards: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community
Leadership; Unicef's Maurice Pate Award; Olof
Palme Award; Gates Award for Global Health and
the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership.

Kazuo Inamori received the
'Entrepreneur for the World' in the category entrepreneur.
This award is granted to a personality who created
wealth for the society. Mr. Inamori founded Kyocera
Corporation and KDDI Corporation, two business
leaders in Japan. He established the non-profit
Inamori Foundation and the Kyoto Prize, an international
award that recognizes individuals and groups worldwide
who have made outstanding contributions to the
betterment of the global community and humankind.
As President of Seiwajyuku, Inamori teaches his
management philosophy to more than 5,000 business
owners and entrepreneurs worldwide.

Finally, Mary Robinson has
been awarded the 'Entrepreneur for the World'
Award, in the Political category. This award is
granted to a personality who has initiated policies
that encouraged the development of entrepreneurial
attitudes in society through legal, political,
administrative or economic actions. Robinson served
as the seventh and first female, President of
Ireland; and United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights.

Robinson's most recent project
is Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization
Initiative, which fosters equitable trade and
decent work, promotes the right to health and
more human migration policies, works to strengthen
women's leadership and encourage corporate responsibility.
She has received numerous prizes: in 1997, she
was one of the two winners of the North-South
Prize and in 2006 she was awarded the Social Science
Principes de Asturias Prize.

About
the World Entrepreneurship Forum

Founded at the initiative
of EMLYON Business School and KPMG, the World
Entrepreneurship Forum benefits from the high
patronage of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the
French Republic. It is the first worldwide think
tank dedicated to entrepreneurs, creators of wealth
and social justice. It gathers annually more than
100 members.